An easy introduction to astronomy, for young gentlemen and ladies ... / By James Ferguson.

  • James Ferguson
Date:
1772
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An easy introduction to astronomy, for young gentlemen and ladies ... / By James Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    its South poles, is called the axis of the earth ?—If fo, feeing that the waters on the earth are of as yielding a nature as the cotton of the mop ; I apprehend, that if the earth turned round its axis, thefurface of the feas about the poles would become flat, and the furface of the feas which are fartheft from the poles woyld fwell out, all around: and fo, the figure of the earth would be like that of a whirling mop. N. No philofophcr could have made a more apt comparifon, nor have drawn a better conclufion from it. When I told you before, that the earth is round, I did not mean that it is ftri&ly fo ; although at the diftance of the moon, it would ap- / pear to be round, as its fhadow on the moon does to us. I do not here confider the hills as any thing, becaufe they are fo little in comparifon to the whole bulk of tfie earth, that they take off no more from its roundnefs in general, than grains of dull do from the roundnefs of that frnall three inch globe which you fee on the table. It is quite round, and covered all over with paper, on which there is a map of the land and water on the earth’s fur- C 4 - face.